Sunday, October 28, 2007

It may look like we posed her this way but I swear, we didn't. This picture is to illustrate for everyone what I mean when I say this little girl has only 2 gears. We have recently moved her to a daybed with a toddler railing and for the first 3-5 nights she stayed in the bed without a problem until she realized she could get down. I am not sure when children decide to be scared of the dark but she for sure isn't there yet. She plays in her room in the pitch black! I have walked in to check on her, thinking she is asleep, and found her sitting in the middle of the room with a book, flipping the pages. This night she was playing in her "barn" (a U-haul box that we cut up and decorated for her). I guess she decided she was finally ready to sleep but didn't make it to the bed in time. I had the trundle bad pulled out for Marie and I think she was gonna use that to jump up onto her bed. She was totally out in this picture. Mike had to come and put her in bed and she didn't even seem to notice when we moved her. She is unbelievable!

Caleb is just as interested in books as Maggie was at this age. Maybe I am raising two nerds, like me. Here he is reading with my friend Marie who just came to visit us from Texas. Thanks for helping with the kids, Marie! The even better part about this book is that it is written in 4 languages. I only read the English and Spanish but it also has French and Chinese. (Thanks to Erica for educating my children!)

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Okay, so I copied the travel thing from my friend, Jessica. Thanks for the idea. I was gonna do the whole family but I am not really sure everywhere Mike has been and I wasn't sure that it would even interest anyone. I have this issue when it comes to blogging that I feel like I need a cute picture to go with whatever I post, or that everything I post should be funny and/or exciting. My life lately hasn't been either one of those but my friend, Marie, informed me that it is okay to write without haven't a special event or moment to tell about.
So now I will ramble for a little about what has been going on here. Mike is gone right now in Florida. I can't say I am not jealous. The weather here isn't too cold so it isn't that I am jealous of- I would just like to be in Florida too. Something about being in an apartment makes being home with 2 young children more stressful than a house. I think it is because it is so much smaller and the sounds of the screaming and crying just resonate off the walls all day long. Maggie doesn't have much room to run here but she has no problems sprinting back and forth across the 14ft living room or doing circles around the coffee table singing "Ring around the Rosie."
This evening we went to the Fall Festival here at our apartment complex that was sponsored in part by the church we have been attending. I tried to convince Maggie to wear her costume but it only worked momentarily and not long enough to get out of the house even. I took it with us hoping that after seeing other children dressed up she would want to put it on but she insisted no. She bobbed for apples and went through a little maze made out of black tarps and sticks for little children. I tried to steer her away from everyone wearing masks because she is pretty scared by that sort of thing. She went trunk or treating at one car and got a miniature Hershey's bar. I ate half and gave her the other half- it took her almost the whole hour that we were there to eat it. She savors every bite of anything sweet that she can sink her teeth into. It is a stark contrast to the typical way that she shovels food in at a meal or snack time. I wish she would be such a dainty eater all the time.
Caleb rolled over 2 days ago and he has done it again since then so I think that counts as a new milestone for us. He also has been sleeping a lot better on most nights. The morning that Mike left, he and Maggie both slept until 7:45am! I love having late sleepers. I always feel so bad for my friends whose kids wake up with the sun in the morning. I just would NOT make it.
Tomorrow brings the promise of another long day. The perk is that it is "church day" and so I can count on Maggie getting some of her energy out there. Hopefully the sun will be out and the temps won't be so bad so we can go to the park or something instead of being inside- otherwise it is back to the mall again to play and walk. I will update again soon - and next time I promise to post pictures and not write so much!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

So I just had to post this newest picture of Maggie and Caleb to say that things have settled down for Maggie. We have not had any other random acts of violence. In fact, she has had a total turn around and is quite loving toward him now. This picture was taken by Mike one morning. She enjoys laying with Caleb on the couch and gets very excited when he holds her hand or "talks to her". Needless to say I am relieved that things have settled down. Now all I have to worry about is her picking him up!

Friday, October 12, 2007

So we had our own little private party at home but I couldn't resist getting all of our old friends together for a party in Lansing. I didn't really go all out- but we did have decorations, balloons, cake and about 28 people! Maggie had a blast. She was so excited about her cake and as you can see stuck her hands in it right away. I was impressed that she blew out her own candle without my help but my sister pointed out that as a result she spit all over the cake. Oops! (I don't think it was really that bad.) She crushed her piece of cake, eating it all by herself with a fork *sigh* I guess she is really growing up. Thanks to everyone who got to come! I wish it wouldn't have been so hot(87+ degrees) but at least it wasn't raining!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Maggie turned two on October third. It is hard to believe two years has passed already. Her daddy took her to breakfast at Bob Evans and to the store to buy her a toy. When they got home she made cupcakes with me for her birthday. She really enjoyed cracking the eggs and would have done the whole case of them if I had not moved it in time. She enjoyed stirring the mix and quickly learned that it tasted good. At first she just got a little on her finger and licked it off but it wasn't long before she was sticking the whole spatula in her mouth. I finished mixing the cake while she licked her spoon and then she got to watch as her cupcakes cooked in the oven. When they were done she got to help put the icing on them and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She sang along! Surprisingly she ate only one mini-cupcake and then didn't ask for more. We had a great time.

I know it may look small but it was scary! See the little red dot at the top left of his forehead? That is where Maggie whacked him in the head with a wooden block while I was feeding him. I like to call that her random act of violence. She does that every once in a while but this was the worst one yet because as soon as she hit him it started bleeding. I freaked out a little but managed to stay calm. After I got it to stop bleeding I saw just how little the cut was but poor Caleb wailed for about 15 minutes. His cry is so pathetic. It sounded more like "how could you let this happen to me mom?" than a painful cry. It really broke my heart. If anyone has tips on how to avoid the random acts of violence please let me know. I don't want to tell Maggie she can never touch him but sometimes she is being gentle and then just out of the blue she smacks his face!? I can't figure it out but I am sure it has something to do with being 2.

So I was back up in Michigan visiting my mom two weeks ago when she offered to pay to get my hair done. Of course, I wasn't going to say no and something definately had to be done with the mess I had if nothing else than to color over the gray. (For those of you who don't know I REALLY am GRAY- not just a little, A LOT. It's bad genes, I guess.) So I go to get it done and I am thinking I want a new cut but I am not really sure what to do, so I told the woman to do whatever she wanted. I told her to pretend she was Nick on TLC's What Not to Wear and to surprise me. So here it is. I asked for the blonde highlights after she cut it because I figured "why not?" She had me convinced that it is just hair and it will grow out. So now I am waiting for it to grow out. I don't hate it but it still shocks me when I look in the mirror. And it isn't exactly a great mom cut because it requires being washed and styled every morning or it looks horrible. I am not sure what I will do in the tweener stage as Mike called it but I am already searching for a different style.

So he isn't doing too much exciting yet, but I didn't want to leave Caleb off the blog. He is growing up so fast. We had him in for his 2 month appointment last week and he weighs 13lbs 12 oz and is 24 inches long. He has already outgrown his 0-3 month clothes and as you can tell from the pictures has quite the little belly and plenty of baby rolls. He is a very chill little guy. He really only cries when Maggie hits him, when he is hungry, or when he is tired. Other than that he just kind of sits and takes in his world. I love his smile and he gives them quite freely. He especially loves to smile at Daddy. He is cooing and making all kinds of noises. He loves mirrors and talks to himself everytime we put him in the car.

So apparently, Maggie watches everything I do. Her newest obsession is to be like me. She has tried wearing my clothes, my shoes, my deoderant, and here's a picture of her wearing my make-up. I was busy feeding Caleb when she came out of the bathroom carrying my eyeshadow saying "make-up". At first I tried to take it from her but then I thought, "is this worth a fight?" So I let her play with it and she knew to put it on her eyes which goes to show how attentive she is. The funny part was when Mike came in and saw it. He asked her what happened and she said "It's pitty" (pretty). She was quite proud of herself and very upset with me when I washed it off.

House of Steele

Our lives right now are full of baseball, the library, and Starbucks. We stay busy, sometimes a little too busy, so the posts may not be as updated as you would like. Just send me a comment to remind me to get blogging and I will fill everyone in, eventually.